Friday, 10 May 2013

Guest Blog 4 - Vinnie Van Puyvelde from Flagstaff

The latest
guest post comes from Belgian athlete Vinnie Van Puyvelde, who has recently
spent three weeks in Flagstaff.Vinnie
is nineteen year old, and has 800m and 1500m personal bests of 1:53.72, and
3:57.12 respectively.He was a member of
the Belgian Championship winning 4x1500m team.He aims to qualify for the European junior championships in Rieti on the
5k.Flagstaff
was one of my favourite venues, so it’s always interesting to hear other
people’s views on the area.

After a
long travel from Brussels to Phoenix,
I could finally smell the American air.It took me about 24 hours to get to my destination, but when I saw the Flagstaff sign I understood it was all worth it. I would
be spending three weeks in one of the most mythical training places in the
world.

Flagstaff
is a very outstretched city at an altitude of 7000ft (2130 meters), located in
Northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States.Because it’s so outstretched, the first thing
you need in Flagstaff (beside your running
stuff) is a car.There are a lot of
long, nice running trails, but for most of them you have to drive some miles to
reach them. Most of the time I ran at the walnut canyon road because it wasn’t
that far from our house and I could easily combine it with a strength workout
in the Flagstaff Athletic Club East.

Another
place where I did some endurance runs was Buffalo
park.Buffalo
park is located just outside town at an altitude of about 7300ft (2225
meters).The park has nice paths, and
beautiful sights. But there are also some negative points about the place. It’s
for example always windy up there, the circuit is just 2 miles and there is a
pretty hard climb at the end of the circuit. But things like the wind and that
hill make you so much stronger, so maybe they can be seen as an advantage.

Fort Tuthill trail was also a nice trail. You
can park at WalMart, where the trail begins. The path isn’t that good in the
first mile, but once you’re in the woods, it’s a pleasure to run. I could go on
for hours with telling about other trails and roads in Flagstaff
like Lake Mary Road, but there are a lot of
other things to talk about like where to do your track sessions and how are the
locals…

In Flagstaff you have a lot of options to go to for your
track sessions. One of those places is the Sinagua
Middle School, located at East Butler Avenue. This is a good track where everybody
can come to do a workout. The only problem can again be the wind, but this a
problem you will always have in Flagstaff.
Another option to do your track session is The Lumberjack Stadium of the Northern Arizona
University. This is a brand new
track with a big stand combined with a huge sports complex next to it. The only
problem here is getting in… When you’re not an elite athlete, but you still want
to do your training on the NAU track, you can take the south gate, which is
normally always opened, because
you won’t get in through the main entrance.

Of course
there are other tracks in Flagstaff, but when
you want to live high and train low, you can go to Sedona. Sedona is a little
cowboy city at an altitude of 4,326ft (1319 meters).Here you have the Sedona Red Rock High School.
This school has a pretty good track, and is a perfect place to do your most
heavy workouts. The weather is good here most of the time, and there’s far less
wind than in Flagstaff. To get in Sedona, you
will have to be on the way for a little hour.During that hour you can admire the beauty of nature with the slide
rocks and the Oak Creek canyon.

If the
weather is very bad, you can do your session in the Skydome, a huge indoor
training complex with a capacity of 10000 people. But don’t be too sure about
doing your training there because the complex is also used for other sports.

The locals
are very kind in Flagstaff. They are really
athletics minded, they start taking to you about running, they would do
everything for you if they hear you’re an athlete and they even encourage you
while you’re doing an endurance run. It’s a sort of runners’ heaven, the only
problem can be that there aren’t a lot of possibilities to eat healthy. You can
find some stuff in supermarkets, but if you had a heavy day and you don’t want
to make a meal by yourself, it will be hard to find a healthy restaurant.

A place to go on a recovery day or a day with one workout is definitely the Grand Canyon (1 hr 30 mins from Flag).It isn’t that far and it’s really amazing -
something that you must have seen when you’ve been in Flagstaff.
Another possibility to go to is Las Vegas, but
then you have to stay there for at least one night because the trip will take 3
hr 30 mins each way.But it is a nice
break in between the heavy work.

So Flagstaff is an awesome place to go to for a training
camp. Great people, great trails, great facilities and it’s cheaper than St.
Moritz where I’ve been two times before.There’s also a great atmosphere that makes you feel like you can handle
anyone.

Thanks to
Vinnie for taking the time away from his training and school work to write this
piece for us.To qualify for the
European Championships he’ll need to run 14:25.00.His first attempt will be on the nineteenth
of May, and we wish him every success.

About Me

In 2010, at the age of 30, I set out on the adventure of a lifetime, in a quest to write an altitude training travel guide. This blog records my adventures, experiences and thoughts as I gathered information for the book, and since as I promote the finished product, Notes from Higher Grounds: An Altitude Training Guide for Endurance Athletes, which was published in 2013.